Mobile devices such as cellular phones, smart phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) are widely used since they generally have good mobility and portability. Accordingly, wired chargers for charging batteries of mobile devices are fabricated in different shapes depending on the shapes or standards of batteries which are manufactured for them. In response to trends toward improved performance and lightness of mobile devices which are intended to satisfy consumers' demands, even a single manufacturer fabricates various types of mobile devices and various types of corresponding chargers.
Mobile devices are supplied with direct current (DC) power via a power supply such as an adaptor or charge an internal battery using a DC power that is supplied via the power supply. The adaptor is a device that converts an alternating current (AC) voltage which is an input supply voltage into a DC voltage.
A male connector of the adaptor is required to be coupled to a female connector of a mobile device so that the mobile device is supplied with DC power.
However, the method of coupling the connectors by fitting the male connector into the female connector may damage the connectors while they are being coupled. In addition, it is required to find the female connector which is disposed in the mobile device and vertically fit and pull the male connector into or out of the female connector, which is problematic. Some approaches that use a magnet to connect in order to reduce such problems have been developed for a long time, and were introduced in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 1988-274070 (published Nov. 11, 1988; titled: CONNECTING DEVICE), United States Patent Application Publication No. 2010-0080563 (published Apr. 1, 2010; titled: MAGNETIC CONNECTOR WITH OPTICAL SIGNAL PATH), United States Patent Application Publication No. 2012-0021619 (published Jan. 26, 2012.01.26; titled: PROGRAMMABLE MAGNETIC CONNECTORS), and the like.
A charging apparatus using such a magnet was also introduced in Korean Patent No. 1116159 (patented Feb. 7, 2012; titled: TERMINAL CONNECTING MODULE AND TERMINAL CONNECTING APPARATUS HAVING THE SAME). In this connecting module, a first connector body freely rotates with respect to a second connector body. However, it is not possible to fix the first connector body at an intended angle. In addition, the second connector body has a plurality of pattern-forming portions, which increases its size.
Recently, new types of chargers have been introduced, attributable to the development of technologies. Such chargers use a non-contact charging method in which a battery is charged via magnetic induction without electrical contacts in order to solve the problems related to the traditional charging methods. However, non-contact chargers are complicated to design and expensive to manufacture, which is problematic.